What happens: As society breaks down, a high school principal embarks on a journey across the United States to find his long-distance lover.

Is it for you? Fans of gritty post-apocalyptic survival stories à la Cormac McCarthy's The Road should look elsewhere, as this hopeful debut focuses on community-minded folks rebuilding after catastrophe.

For fans of: Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven and James Howard Kunstler's World Made By Hand.

Featuring contribution by such authors as Paul Cornell, Mark Lawrence and Charles Stross, a latest Wild Cards adventure follows a superpowered Winston Churchill and Alan Turing as they outmaneuver the terrifying mutations of the Xenovirus in Britain.

What it is: a quartet of thought-provoking science fiction novellas by Cory Doctorow (Little Brother, Walkaway).

Includes: "Unauthorized Bread," which pits refugees against their "smart" appliances; "Radicalized," in which domestric terrorists target insurance companies; "The Masque of the Red Death," about doomsday preppers unprepared for an actual apocalypse; and "Model Minority," in which superheroes fail in the face of a racist criminal justice system.

Why you might like it: each story examines the intersection of technology, politics, and social issues as it envisions a plausible near-future world.

Includes: detailed author's notes describing the origins of the stories, plus original poetry.

Is it for you? Like fairy tales themselves, the stories in this collection vary in tone, from the lighthearted Pied Piper retelling "Green Plague" to the heartbreaking "Granny Rumple," about a Jewish Rumpelstiltskin.